Question

Is it anyhow possible to do a SQL query where you take some info from left table and all info from right table matching the conditions.
BUT if there is no records matching the conditions in the right table, it should still show the full record, but filled with a lot of *NULL*s

At the moment, I have come to this:

select
 u.id, u.fullname,
 r.*
from
 users as u
right outer join
 rapports as r
on
 u.id = r.userid
where
 u.active = 1
 and (r.closed = 0 or CONVERT(varchar, r.periodstart, 112) = convert(varchar, GETDATE(), 112))
order by
 u.fullname

But this only shows records from user-table if there is a record in rapports-table matching the WHERE-conditions.

Is it anyhow possible?

Answer 1

Notice where the conditions for the outer table (r) go – not in the WHERE clause (which converts your outer join to an inner join) but rather in the ON clause.

select
 u.id, u.fullname,
 r.*
from
 users as u
left outer join
 rapports as r
on
 u.id = r.userid
 and (r.closed = 0 
   or CONVERT(varchar, r.periodstart, 112) = convert(varchar, GETDATE(), 112))
where
 u.active = 1
order by
 u.fullname;

However this is much better:

select
 u.id, u.fullname,
 r.*
from
 users as u
left outer join
 rapports as r
on
 u.id = r.userid
 and (r.closed = 0 or CONVERT(DATE, r.periodstart) = CONVERT(DATE, GETDATE()))
where
 u.active = 1
order by
 u.fullname;